Employment Discrimination

Age

Bleimehl v. Eastman Kodak (1997)

Ed worked for IBM for 30 years as a sales representative, account manager, and territory manager. He received outstanding reviews and performance awards. In July 1988, Eastman Kodak bought IBM's copier business. Ed was recruited to stay with Kodak as a senior marketing representative. Shortly after the acquisition, he came under the supervision of three very young managers, who set out to discredit and remove him. The new managers made derogatory age-related remarks to him, raised his sales goals to unattainable levels, much higher than the younger sales people, removed part of his sales territory, reassigned some of his best customers to younger representatives, denied him the opportunity to work an adjoining open territory, and sent him out of his territory for useless training during his final working period.

Despite the effort to reduce his sales, Ed remained in the top half of all salespeople in the district and in his last months was frequently one of the highest achievers in the district. In order to justify terminating him for "not making goal," his managers fired him before the last quarter, which was always the best quarter for sales. After he was terminated, the goals of all the other sales representatives were adjusted so his age-related discharge would be less obvious. Without the adjustments, almost none of the sales representatives in the Minneapolis District would have met their sales goals. Ed was the only one fired. The only other sales representative who was over fifty was forced into retirement during the same period. Ed was replaced by a much younger person, whose sales territory was enlarged, and whose goals were significantly reduced. The case was tried to a jury, who awarded Ed damages in excess of $1 million and found that the discrimination was willful, which would have doubled some parts of the damages. Ultimately, the judge reduced the jury's verdict to $855,024 and set aside the jury's finding of willfulness. However, the judge added 10% interest annually from 1993 and awarded attorneys fees of $329,487.10. 1997 WL 33322218.

Gallion v. Cerro Gordo County (1996)

After thirty years of excellent service, Arlene was terminated as Deputy Auditor because Linda Collins, the Auditor, allegedly needed to save money because of the Iowa Trust Scandal. Arlene was forty-nine years old. The reasons given for Arlene's termination were all shown to be pretextual during a three-day hearing before an Administrative Law Judge under the auspices of the Mason City Human Rights Commission. Though it was true that Mason City suffered a substantial deficit, the real reason Arlene was the sole employee in the Auditor's Office who was terminated was because of her high age-related salary. The Administrative Law Judge awarded Arlene $162,843 in back and front pay and $15,000 in emotional distress damages. The Judge also awarded attorney's fees and costs in an amount to be determined in a separate proceeding. Before the attorney's fees hearing was held, the County agreed to pay Arlene a total of $200,000 including attorney's fees and costs.

Steer v. American Ordinance, LLC (2004)

Jim Steer is an engineer. He started working at what was then the Army Ammunition Plant in Middleton on November 18, 1974 and worked his way up to being one of the highest ranking engineers in the plant. On March 6, 2001, Jim was notified that his position was going to be immediately reallocated and he was offered a demotion to Production Supervisor, which he had to accept in order to mitigate his damages. At this time, Jim was the oldest employee in Production Engineering and had the most years of service. What really happened is that Jim's position was simply renamed and filled by a thirty-three year old who Jim had to train. A few months later, a second person who was forty-seven was hired into the plant in the exact same classification as Jim's classification. Jim sued for age discrimination, but continued throughout the litigation to work as a production supervisor. He was forced to work the worst shifts in the worst locations, but he persevered.

The litigation was lengthy and contentious, with multiple problems with discovery which resulted in sanctions against the Defendant. Shortly before trial, Jim settled his case and retired.

Tysdal v. Security Savings Bank (1997)

Shirley Tysdal started working as a teller in 1976. By 1984, she was promoted to bank branch manager. The bank was caught in the savings and loan problems and was taken over by the Resolution Trust in 1991. In 1994, Security purchased the bank. Shirley remained the branch manager and vice president. Throughout her employment, Shirley was evaluated annually and was rated highly. She came under new supervisors in January, 1995. Shirley was suddenly the subject of unjustified criticism. She asked for and received her first formal job description in March and in April, her new supervisors said she was "making progress." On May 19, 1995, without explanation and without warning, she was fired. At that point, she had been employed for nearly 20 years. She believed she was the victim of discrimination on the basis of age. Her case was tried to a jury in 1997 and she was awarded $60,000 in back pay and emotional distress damages. The Court added $39,500.00 in liquidated damages for willful violation of the Age Discrimination Act; $66,256.00 in front pay, plus attorneys fees and costs.

Watts v. IES Utilities (2001)

Blaine Watts was a training instructor at the Duane Arnold Energy Center, Iowa's only nuclear power plant. The Center began a downsizing program, and selected older workers close to retirement age to be terminated. Blaine was 58 years old when they placed his position "at risk," refused to transfer him to 8 other positions for which he was the best qualified person, and hired younger people for each position. The case was tried to a jury in the Northern District of Iowa in October of 2001. The jury awarded Blaine about $680,000. In post-trial motions, the court adjusted the jury's verdict, added front pay and attorney's fees of about $526,000 and costs of about $74,000.

Disability - Obesity

Middleton v. Security Savings Bank (1997)

Mary Middleton was hired as a customer service representative in July, 1994. She was unable to stand for lengthy periods because she was obese. She requested and was provided a stool to use . No one complained about her work performance and her reviews were excellent. On May 18, 1996 her supervisor told her she was being transferred to a different branch where she would be a drive-up teller. She learned that she would be required to stand all day. She reminded her supervisor she could not stand for long periods because of her obesity and therefore she could not accept the position. He never responded to her request for accommodation and she was never even formally terminated. This may be the first case ever tried to a jury involving obesity as a disability. Two physicians testified that Mary's obesity was caused by her genetic pre- disposition, and resulted in substantial disability. The jury awarded her $49,000 in back pay and emotional distress. The court added $40,431 in front pay, plus attorneys fees and costs.

Race

African American Children v. Convenience Store (2007)

Three African American children, ages twelve to thirteen went to their neighborhood convenience store to buy playing cards for the family gathering nearby. The assistant manager accused the children of shoplifting with no evidence whatsoever. She demanded that the children empty their pockets. The children had nothing in their pockets but the money given to them by their family to buy the cards. Nevertheless, the assistant manager cursed the children and demanded that they leave the store and never return. As the children left the store, one of their mothers drove up. After the boys told her what had happened to them, she confronted the assistant manager who provided several excuses for her conduct, all of which proved to be false. She provided more contradictory excuses to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. We accepted responsibility for the case after talking to the children and comparing each of their recollections with the provable facts. The children settled for a confidential amount a few days later.

Mure, Apodaka and Roby v. Big Lot Stores, Inc., David Stone, Greg Kruse, Joe Noyes (2006)

The three women all worked at the Big Lots store on Merle Hay Road. Daisy and Sarita are African American and Linda is Hispanic. They were harassed on the basis of their race, ethnicity, and discriminated against in pay and promotions. When they complained, they were fired. We settled their cases for a confidential amount.

Vivian v. Madison (1998)

Wendy began her employment with UPS in 1994 as a package car driver. She was promised full time permanent employment, but her supervisor refused to assign her to her own route and she actually worked only a day a week on average. Wendy's co-workers told her that the only reason she was hired was because she was a "double minority" - both African American and female. White males hired after her were assigned permanent fulltime employment. She was also subject to racial slurs during her employment. Madison fired her twice on trumped up charges. She was ordered reinstated the first time, but fired again a month later. She filed suit against UPS and against Madison directly after the Iowa Supreme Court made its decision. This case established that supervisors and other individuals can be held personally liable for their own discriminatory acts under Iowa Law. The case was settled. Vivian v. Madison, 601 NW 2d 872 (Iowa 1999).